


Design Error

by the_genderman



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Tony Stark Needs Sleep, is this crackfic?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 02:05:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13777404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_genderman/pseuds/the_genderman
Summary: Inspired by this Tumblr Post:Tony is officially too sleep-deprived to functionEdit: Tumblr broke the image link, so here's just the quote.“Design Error,” or “How Bucky ended up with seven fingers on one hand.”





	Design Error

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BuckyKingOfMemes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckyKingOfMemes/gifts).



“Yeah, that’s right! Stay gone!” Clint yelled at the fast-departing alien spacecraft. 

“Don’t taunt, we already embarrassed them badly enough. I don’t think they’ll be back,” Natasha said, gently steering Clint back onto the quinjet.

Steve glanced inside the quinjet and made a silent headcount. “Ok, where’s Bucky?” he asked.

“Right here,” Bucky replied, jogging up behind him. “Sorry, got a little caught up with one of the purple ones, ended up halfway up a tree before it disengaged.”

“Alright, so everyone’s back now?” Tony asked. “We can get back home now? And whoever got slimed—don’t lie, I know one of you guys did, I can smell it—can go change clothes and shower.”

Clint surreptitiously scraped his shoe on the floor, leaving a slight, iridescent trail of goo.

“Yeah, we’re all back now,” Sam answered as Steve finally stepped back into the jet and the door slid closed behind him. “Although, maybe we’re not _all_ back entirely how we left. Bucky, where’s your hand? What happened?”

“Oh, this?” Bucky said, lifting his left arm, which was currently missing one hand and a couple inches of forearm.

“Yes, that,” Steve said, leaning over to look. “What happened to your hand? Should we go back and look for it?”

“Nah, too late for that,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “It’s on its way to Rigel-4 or wherever those little buggers came from.”

“So, they came here to steal your hand? Is that what you’re saying?” Sam asked, skeptical. 

Clint snort-laughed.

“Probably not,” Bucky replied. “As far as I can tell, it was an accident. I grabbed onto one of the aliens, it punched in some kind of code into its wrist-device and winked out, taking my hand with it. I think the correct term, according to Harry Potter, is I was ‘splinched’?”

“Not that I would ever take advantage of your misfortune,” Tony said, in a tone suggesting that he was absolutely prepared to do exactly that, “but this gives me the perfect opportunity to finish working on my newest prototype arm for you. Pop by my lab when we get back, I’ll whip you up a new arm in no time.”

“Tony, you’ve been awake for forty-eight hours straight, now. Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Steve cautioned.

“I can come by in the morning when you’ve gotten some rest,” Bucky shrugged. “It doesn’t actually hurt, and I can stuff a sock over the end for the meantime.”

“Pfft, please,” Tony scoffed, putting the quinjet on autopilot and spinning the pilot’s seat around to face his audience. “My personal record is six days and thirteen hours, senior year at MIT. Finals week, _and_ I aced all my exams. I’m older and wiser now, so building an arm on _only_ two days without sleep? That’s nothing. I insist. I’ll have DUM-E tranq you and drag you down there if I have to.”

Sam stifled a laugh. Steve just crossed his arms and sighed.

“Alright, sure,” Bucky shrugged again.

\--------------------

“Alright, let’s get this party on the road,” Tony said, practically dragging Bucky down the steps to his main lab. “J.A.R.V.I.S.” Tony intoned as soon as the door slid open. “I’m gonna need some background noise to work by.”

“Very good Sir, would you prefer music, television, or a film?”

“Ooh, a movie sounds good. How about…” Tony paused, stroking his beard, his other hand still wrapped around Bucky’s intact wrist. “Aha! I know, Princess Bride. Classic. Oh, and DUM-E, get me a triple espresso, five sugars, and please, don’t spill it this time. I know you know what a lid is.”

DUM-E whirred a reply and rolled off to locate the closest espresso machine.

“Now, sit sit sit,” Tony said, releasing Bucky’s arm and waving him into a very comfortable chair. “Feel free to take a nap or whatever while I work. I’ll wake you when I’m done. You look like _you_ could use the sleep, not me. Jeez, you look like a raccoon with those dark circles under your eyes.”

Bucky picked up the cleanest rag within reach and, without a word, wiped the eyeblack off his face.

“Oh. Right,” Tony replied.

\------------------

“Uh, Tony?” Bucky asked, glancing down at the new hand Tony was lining up with his wrist.

“Shh!” Tony shushed. “Genius at work. There are a lot of tiny little connections I have to make here. It’s just like surgery. Would you interrupt a surgeon at work? No, you would not.”

“Yes, but…”

“No buts! Genius at work!”

Bucky stole another glance at his new hand and sighed, but refrained from trying to speak up again. When Tony got into his ‘sleep deprivation + caffeine + sugar’ groove, he was even more impossible than usual to get in a word edgewise.

Tony continued soldering.

Princess Bride continued playing in the background.

\-----------------

“There!” Tony said elatedly, setting down his welding microtorch and grabbing Bucky’s forearm to observe his work. “Beautiful. Good as new. Better than new. You, my good sir, are whole again.”

With that pronouncement, Tony promptly passed out onto Bucky’s less uncomfortable shoulder, snoring gently.

\-------------------

Steve tapped softly on the glass of the lab door to get Bucky’s attention. Bucky beckoned him to come in. Tony was still asleep in exactly the same position.

“You’d been gone for a few hours longer than the estimated repair time, so I thought I’d come down to check on you,” Steve said quietly, hoping not to wake Tony. “So, how’s your new hand?”

Bucky raised his left hand to show Steve.

“Um?” Steve replied.

“Yeah, um,” Bucky echoed. “I think he was a little more tired than he realized.”

“Why do you have a thumb on both sides?”

Bucky shrugged both shoulders. Tony slipped a little further down, but didn’t wake.

“Hang on, hold that up again?” Steve asked, stepping in to get a closer look at Bucky’s hand. “Seven? Seven fingers? I might be able to understand six, but _two_ extras? Is he gonna fix it when he wakes up?”

“Y’know,” Bucky mused. “I think I’m not gonna mention it. See how long it takes him to notice.”

“You sure about that? You have two thumbs on the same hand.”

“All the better to thumb-wrestle the Hulk with,” Bucky joked.

Steve rolled his eyes. “I’m going to bed. You have fun down here with sleeping beauty and your extra fingers.”

Bucky gave him three thumbs up.


End file.
